1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to fishing lures, in particular to a fishing lure made of a cast of a natural bait encased in a clear castable material, and incorporating a sealed air chamber which causes it to swim upright in the water and by a simple adjustment can be made to either float at the surface, or dive at different desired depths required of different fishing
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, a wide variety of artificial fishing lures have been available. It has been the intention of most lures to attract and entice various species of game fish into striking and taking the lure as if it were its natural forage.
Common methods employed in the design and manufacture of prior art fishing lures traditionally have been to reproduce the appearance or imitate the live motion of the game species' natural bait. Previous designs have been carved out of wood or molded from plastic materials in the shape of fish, frogs, shrimp, etc. and then painted to resemble these baits. Other designs have encased light reflective materials or photographs (Liley U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,189 and Shellenberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,793) inside of a clear plastic body.
Disadvantages of many of these prior art lures are that in the case of carved or molded lures, they can never be made to totally reproduce the detail of form found in nature. In the case of photographs, they can reproduce the clear detail and colors found in nature but only in two dimensions, even a three dimensional photograph appears as a line (i.e., the edge of the photograph) when viewed upon from the top of its vertical axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,269 to Roe discloses a dehydrated bait embodied in a transparent castable material. This would seem to have accomplished the task of producing a realistic looking lure. However, disadvantages here are that an actual baitfish must be used which would create obvious drawbacks in its manufacture and a needless waste of aquatic life. Another disadvantage is that the color of a living fish is determined as a function of life within the cell tissue of the skin of the fish. In the same way as a chameleon changes its color, color is determined by a delicate chemical balance within the cells that produce and contain pigment. By taking cues from internal and external stimuli, color is automatically adapted to changing water conditions, different degrees of daylight or darkness or even from causes such as aggression, stress or fear. In fact, many fish themselves can change color at will. Hence, once the fish dies, the delicate chemical pigment balance is lost. Also, even though pigments remain, they are dulled or different altogether from the original living color. Thus, within a short time the remaining pigments brown and fade as these natural pigments are unstable and no longer have the function of life within the cell tissues to alter these chemically active pigments or to replenish them when they break down.
As mentioned above, if the fish is dehydrated by methods such as freeze drying or dehydration solutions before it is encased, as Roe suggests, the tissue will deform and wrinkle. In the case of freeze drying or in the case of using dehydration solutions, the mucous membranes and mucous that surrounds the eyes, gills and most of the scales and skin of the fish are leached away or dried up by the solution and thus, creating an aberration from the original form of the bait.
Other prior art lures have incorporated not just the appearance of the bait, but also imitation of the motion of a live bait. Some of the better hydrodynamically designed lures are effective by creating vibrations in the water. Some lures are further enhanced by rattles which entice game fish to strike the lure.
In order to be able to fish at different depths, in an endless variety of trolling or casting situations, fisherman in the past have had to keep a large variety of lures on hand. To accomplish this purpose there have been art lures which have incorporated methods of adjustable depth control such as lips or spoons so as to force the lure down as it is pulled forward through the water. U.S. Pat. No. 1,200,135 to Reynolds, U.S. Pat. No. 2,944,393 to Poe, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,109 to Peterson and U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,344 to Watts are examples of such designs. U.S. Pat. No. 2,598,012 to Prieur discloses an angled forward lure body with the line attached to the top of the lure and accomplishes diving by this same principal of being forced down when being pulled forward through the water as a result of is hydrodynamic shape. One problem with these types of lures is that various depths are achieved only as a function of various rates of retrieval of the lure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,914 to Quinlan achieves variable buoyancy by allowing water into or out of a hollow flexible lure through a vent opening. U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,191 to Spivey discloses a hollow body having a slidable mass therein which in one position entraps air within the lure while in a second position allows water into the chamber. These lures can be made to either float on the surface or dive to the bottom, but are not accurately adjusted for fishing at intermediate depths.
Another method of achieving adjustable depth control has been by changing the density of the lure by using a detachable weight as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,60 to Knapton or by utilizing a selection of detachable hooks of different weights, as discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,899 to McGahee. This system achieves variable depth control but is undesirable due to the need to disassemble and reassemble the lure.
Another problem plaguing the side-to-side vibratory motion of these designs is the ability to place the lure at the same depth as the intended game fish are swimming or feeding. Most prior art lures, as a function of design, are made to either float on or near the surface, sink to the bottom, or operate at a predetermined depth in the water which has been determined and set during manufacture and is fixed in the density, center of gravity and hydrodynamic shape of the lure itself. Therefore, the lure will only operate properly at the depth for which it was designed.
Therefore, a need exists for a bait/lure which more closely resembles the appearance and colors of live bait over the attempts of the prior art and which can be effectively and easily adjusted to operate at different desired depths. It is, therefore, to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings that the present invention is directed.